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Cool fall author: Billy Crystal

Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
10:11 p.m. EDT September 4, 2013

The actor talks about his career, baseball and staying married for 43 years.

Billy Crystal, here in his Beverly Hills production office, has written a memoir, 'Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?'(Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)

Story Highlights

At 65, Billy Crystal, the comedian, actor and nine-time Oscar host, has written what he calls "sort of a memoir." Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? (Holt, on sale Sept. 10) is a collection of 21 short essays on his family, career, aging and love of baseball.

1. You're known more as a performer. Do you like to write?

I've always written, sketches and stuff, but every time I finished one of these chapters, it felt more like a book than a performance. I did it myself, me at the computer – I almost said typewriter. My editor helped with the structure, but I wanted it to sound like me. I told her, "Don't correct the grammar." I'd read it aloud to listen to where it needed spritzing, when it was too formal, too clunky.

2. You write about a remarkable range of friends including Muhammad Ali and Mickey Mantle. Do you work at making friends?

Actor Billy Crystal has a lot of stories to tell in his memoir, 'Still Foolin' 'Em.'

I like people. The good ones stick, like Dick Schaap (the sports journalist). He was the first person to put me on TV. I was a substitute teacher in Long Beach (Long Island, N.Y.), and he hired me to do my Ali imitation on a TV special honoring Ali. When it was over, Ali hugged me and whispered, "You are my little brother." It's what he calls me to this day.

3. Is Mantle still one of your heroes?

Still? I can see where that question is headed. All the stuff he did, the drinking and all, that was his private life. But he was the symbol of a perfectly simple time in our youth. The only person he hurt was himself. He wasn't like these guys now with the steroids. The last note I got from him ended, "Can't wait to see you now that I'm sober."

4. Do you mind being recognized?

Only when some guy walks up to my face and takes a photo with his phone without even asking me. But most people are nice. The other day this lady says to me, "We love you in Fargo." And I say, "Thanks, but I wasn't in Fargo (the Coen brothers film)." And she says, "No. I'm from Fargo, N.D., and we love you there."

5. Any advice on how to stay married to the same woman for 43years?

There are no secrets. I'm no Dr. Phil. But we laugh a lot. Janice has always made me laugh. As I write in the book, I can't bear to think of life without her; I want to go first because I don't want to miss her. I'd like to think there is a heaven and it starts from the happiest day in your life. I'll be 18 and Janice Goldfinger will walk by me in a bikini, and I will follow her and it will start all over again.